


The Only One

by Punktchen



Series: 26 letters of quodo angst [1]
Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: F/M, M/M, mentions of odo/kira
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:34:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24882397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Punktchen/pseuds/Punktchen
Summary: Odo, Quark, a late night talk.Written for C - Chances Missed.
Relationships: Odo/Quark (Star Trek)
Series: 26 letters of quodo angst [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1800496
Comments: 9
Kudos: 37





	The Only One

“She hates me,” Odo says.

“No, she doesn’t,” Quark says.

“She barely looks at me,” Odo says.

“You barely look at her!” Quark says, exasperated and more than a little frustrated.

“She hates me,” Odo says, again.

Quark rolls his eyes.

They’ve been having this same conversation for what felt like hours, but was more than likely just a few minutes. And still, Quark felt like they were treading water. He rubs the peak of his browridge, feeling a headache coming.

“Look,” Quark says, “you can sit here and whine about it every week, or you can actually do something.”

“Like what?” Odo asks.

“Talk to her, maybe?” Quark says. “Ask her out. Show her why she should go out with you.”

Odo is quiet for a moment. An eerie kind of quiet, one that Quark can sense nothing good can come of.

“Why should she?” Odo asks quietly.

Quark groans. It’s far too late for this.

He only decided to pass by Odo’s quarters because Odo seemed to be in a mood all day. He was right, of course. He’s rarely wrong when it comes to Odo. But sometimes he wishes he was, especially after long, Klingon-filled days when he had to make the hard choice between his few scant hours of sleep, and Odo.

He always chose Odo.

“She kissed you!” Quark says. “She probably had a reason for that.”

“She didn’t really kiss me,” Odo says, shifting uncomfortably. “She kissed my…”

“Alternate-timeline older counterpart, yes, yes,” Quark waves his hand. “Jadzia explained it to me already.”

“She felt sorry for him,” Odo says, quiet and sad. “She thought she was going to die and leave him again.”

“You don’t know that,” Quark says. “And you won’t know for sure until you talk.”

In the dark, Quark can just make out a down-turn in the faint outline of Odo’s mouth. “What if she rejects me?” He asks.

“Then you can finally move on with your life, like I’ve been telling you to do for a year now.”

Odo leans his head back against the metallic arc he’s leaning against. “It’s not that easy.”

“It never is,” Quark says, not unsympathetic. Case in point. “But you’ll find someone else, and…”

Odo shakes his head. “I don’t think I will.”

“Kira isn’t the only woman in the galaxy, Odo,” Quark says.

"But she is the one who doesn’t just see me as a… as a shapeshifter,” Odo says the moniker like a curse-word. “As a changeling. As dangerous, as different, as… Not a person.”

“That’s not true,” Quark says. “Plenty of people find you attractive.”

He realizes he’d said a stupid thing when Odo looks at him, taken aback. “Like who?” Odo asks.

Quark licks his lips.

In the faint light of the stars, Odo’s hair looks like pure, liquid latinum. His eyes shine like gemstones. His mouth is a dark, warm cave Quark wishes to explore, even if only once in his life. Wishes he could just say, “like me,” in the huskiest voice he could muster, and lean in. Breach the short distance between them and feel if Odo’s skin was as smooth and soft as it looked.

And the sad thing is, It'd probably work. Odo’d been in shambles since his unwilling confession to Kira and the frozen awkwardness that had spun between them since. This would not be Quark’s first time playing rebound, and it might be his only chance with Odo.

But then, if he did, would Odo ever be this open with him again?

“The Bolian woman who owned the Jumja stand a few years back,” he says instead. “the blonde chick from the Bajoran café on the second floor, the Denobulan from the first floor jewelry shop, that annoying Betazoid ambassador…”

Odo shakes his head. “Those are not the same.”

“Odo,” Quark says, “if you just want to sit here and feel sorry for yourself, I’m going to leave.”

“Then leave,” Odo says.

Quark stays with him until Odo’s regeneration cycle kicks in.


End file.
